Signs: "No Fate but what we make..."

In a conversation about coincidences and fate and destiny and luck, there always seems to be two sides.

Today, I think we should look at the "Terminator 2" version of that idea - there is no fate, but what we make. The future isn't set - we can change it. In another pop culture reference, Daniel Faraday decides that people are variables, and with a large enough rock, one can change fate. This is Back to the Future - you can create an alternate world, where the reality you came from is not the same as the reality you are in.

Now all that makes for some fun and cool sci-fi storytelling, but what difference does it make right here and now? Sci-Fi is afterall, Fiction.

So let me introduce you a concept called affirmations. This concept comes from a book called "The Dilbert Future" by Scott Adams. The first 90% of the book is a classic Dilbert and Scott Adams - making fun of corporate excess and stupidity (while still showing a scary ability to actually predict the future), while the last 10% of the book turns metaphysical.

In the last 10% of the book, Adams wanders into some very deep thinking - Shrodingers Cat, the Double Slit Experiment, and the Monte Hall Problem. After and during all of that, we start talking about Affirmations.

Affirmations, in Adams' experience, is a process wherein you write down something you want twenty five times. Do this for a few months, and what you want comes true. Adams' reveals several outlandish times he used this method to success - including using it to become a world famous cartoonist. These stories are of course anecdotal and from Adam's own life, so take them with a grain of salt.

This does seem to correspond, in some way, with the way that prayers can actually positively impact health - even when the person being prayed for has no idea. It seems the act of thinking positively (praying) can actually influence events beyond our control.

We can actually control our fate. There is no fate - but what we make. It's not 100% effective, of course, and it does take time, but in some way, thinking and praying is like putting a steering wheel (or even better, a rudder) in our lives. Adam's theory is that the universe consists of infinite numbers of realities, where every decision and choice we make creates a new universe. By the process of Affirmations, we can steer our consciousness towards the reality that we want - we can choose our reality. Every little step and choice we make lets our consciousness attempt to guide us to the reality that we choose for ourselves.

This helps explains phenomenon like luck - people who believe they are lucky are lucky because they believe it. It's circular, but works. In my case, I (twice) recently entered into a contest to win a painted army (a few hundred dollars worth of merchandise each time). I went to the store because I knew I would win. And I won. Both times. My wife got exasperated the second time I came home with a bunch of merchandise - because it's flatly ridiculous. The odds are so low... yet it happened. Perhaps because I believed it would.

Of course, there's always the possibility that I won because it was fated that I would. That would be the sequel - Terminator 3. Check back later this week for more on that.